I feel that this is one product I am really qualified to review. If you don't remember, I have seven, yes, seven pets and one slightly messy husband (I'm being kind, cause he reads my blog and will torture me later about it).Hi honey. :)

My bedroom carpet, oh my poor bedroom carpet. It actually took me 10 years after moving into the house to getting around to replacing the carpet that was originally in there. And when I finally got the carpet, she sure was pretty. A beige carpet with a very cool pattern to it. I even spent a little more on it to make sure it was sturdy and somewhat stain resistant. Yeah, the stain resistant people haven't met my cats.

My one cat is skitzy, and eats too fast and has a bad stomach. No matter what I give her on occasion she will vomit it up 2 minutes later if she eats it too fast or gets all jittery. And her favorite place to do it is my bedroom. So over the years I have tried different carpet cleaning methods to for quick spot removal. I've done Woolite, Carbona, Resolve and several other smaller brands. They did get up about 70% of the stain but left a half decent yet slightly faded stain that would never come out. And this was all for messes that just happened. Nevermind on old stains on the carpet.

Once I got Spot Shot the hunt was over. Spot Shot is not expensive, comes out with coupons all the time and goes on sale now and then at my ShopRite. Now with any pile of stuff (yuck) you have to pick up the initial amount with a paper towel. But for the rest that it staining the carpet just spray the Spot Shot on, you can actually see it look like it is getting into the carpet. I use an old rag and a brush to scrub the stain. I would say with most stains that have occurred, I have repeated this process maybe 2 or 3 times with the stain and it is all gone.

So for a woman who tries not to have brand loyalty to get the deals, I have to remain brand loyal to this stain remover. I do it for the sake of my beautiful bedroom carpet.

I already spent our $50 grocery allowance this week. But I am very tempted to go back to ShopRite tomorrow to get more of the Perdue chicken on sale. It was such good prices for all of that product that I thought maybe I could spend a little more and stock up for weeks.

But doesn't that defeat the purpose of the budget? And when do you say when? What if another deal next week makes me want to go back and go over?

I think I may just stay home, but then I could change my mind in 30 minutes. What's your opinion? When is it time to just so no to some deals?

I was originally going to get the new Gillette Gamer razor in this deal. But dummy me didn't read the ad correctly. I get the store and can't find it anywhere. So I go and grab an ad in the front of the store and see in the writing below it, that it doesn't come out until January 30th. But the deal I did do was still good and I made ECB's which is something that hasn't happened for a few weeks.

So my plan not to go to a million different places over my weekend worked out pretty well. I slept in Saturday and got up early on Sunday to hit the stores. I first hit CVS, more on that in another more, then ShopRite and the DollarTree to get my newspapers. Its been a few weeks since I got to spend my whole weekly budget at just ShopRite and I felt I did pretty well. They were having a big Perdue sale and got some good deals with coupons.

All this and under budget this week. Hopefully ShopRite has some more good meat deals over the next few weeks, so I won't have to run back to SuperFresh again. But then again, I can't believe I will be that lucky for long.

***I forgot to include that I got coupons for $7.00 off my next shopping trip at SR too. Earned $5.00 off for buying the 7 Kellogg's cereal and $2.00 for buying the French's mustard. SCORE.

I get up for work every morning at 4:30am, yes, that early. I take the dog out, feed the pets, exercise for 45 minutes, eat my breakfast, get shower, get ready, drop the dog off at my mom's house and drive 25 minutes to work. Every day. Five days a week. Yes, I'm very grateful to have a good job, but it still gets tiring, I don't go to bed early enough and I don't get alot of sleep.

On the weekends I haven't been getting too much extra sleep due to wanting to be up early to go to SuperFresh on Saturday's and get some deals and the newspapers at the dollar store. Then getting up early on Sunday's to go to ShopRite before the crowds get there.

This weekend I have had it. I needed some sleep. So I've decided to skip SuperFresh and sleep in late. I got up at 9:30am. Which is late for me and I loved it. Then I got to exercise, make breakfast and hang out with the family. I am just going to get my whole $50 of my budget at ShopRite tomorrow morning like I used to. Sometimes you just have to cut a few of the bargain things down. Time is just as valuable as money, and rest is even more important.

I would love to do this every week, but SuperFresh just has too many good meat deals. So I've decided that when we need meat to just add them to my Sunday trip. Go to CVS first, then ShopRite, and then SF to keep my Saturdays open.

I also sent two big payments to card #4, so its slowly coming down. I hope to have it gone by the end of February or mid-March with our tax returns, plus some of that will go to card #5 too.

In March it will be a year since I started couponing and I have learned so many lessons. I have learned what goes on sale at what times of the year and that you need to stock up on it then. Sugar for instance goes on sale between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I bought it on sale, but not alot of it. Now I am completely out, needed more right away, and had to pay full price as the coupons I had didn't even make it cheaper than the store brand. Now I know to buy a bunch of it at the holidays. You live and learn.

I decided this week to load up Mr. Freeze as much meat as I could, and then take a break from meat shopping in the next few weeks, and focus on other categories, fruits and vegs, non-perishable goods (rice, beans, pasta).

Then I hit our local produce market because they have the cheapest lunch meat around. And my poor husband needs something besides leftovers for lunch. I found out while in there that it was a $10.00 minimum to use your debit card there and since I had no cash, I had to get a few things to bring me up to the $10.00. The bananas are for my mom, who asked me to grab them for her.

I tried to sign on online about a week ago to one of my credit card accounts. I wasn't completely paying attention when I first typed in the user name and password and I messed it up. Try again it said. I tried again and my fingers must have malfunctioned cause I typed it wrong again. It then locked me out. When I hit the button to unlock the account, it asked me a bunch of questions. One of the final ones being the 3 digit security code on the back of the card.

I don't have the card. I shredded it up months ago and never wrote the number down. I didn't think I would need it again unless I was making a purchase. It won't let me sign back on or unlock the account without the code. So I called them and they told me I must have the code to get back on. So they will issue me another card. Once I get it then I can sign on.

Well you know that as soon as I get the new card, I will just write down the code and then cut up the card. I wanted to send them a nice payment this morning, but I can't do it online, and dummy me forgot to bring in a copy of my bill so that I could call them and pay it over the phone.

So here I have the money and no way to pay them. Guess it will have to wait until I get home, and maybe I can at least do it by phone, or just wait until the card or the next bill comes in.

Can you tell I am getting real inpatient to get rid of this debt?

Note: When I got home later in the day my card had arrived in the mail. I was able to re-register online and sent them a nice payment!!!

Well my ulcer is back. They originally found it when I was 19. And something I must have done recently has irritated it. So a call to the doctor tomorrow will be in order. I keep eating to keep my stomach full, which does make it feel better, but my pants are getting tight. That's not me above, of course. Just imagine longer hair and much more annoyed face.

I'm in my impatient stage again with the debt. Have to wait until I get paid on Friday before I can send more money to my debt. Not a race, remember, not a race. I am just so determined to get rid of it, that it can't happen fast enough. Emergency fund still chugging away. I couldn't decide to do the EF or the debt, so I keep doing both at the same time.

I switched to a new bank this week. None of those annoying fees for strange things anymore. So yahoo!!

Finally set up a little office for me in our extra bedroom. I was living out of a tiny corner in my husband's home office, with just an old metal file cabinet and Rubbermaid file box. I never felt like organizing it and doing the stuff I wanted to with our papers as I felt like I bothering my other half being in there. Now that I have my own space with a desk and cabinet, I am really getting things together. Making up new files, gathering info in correct spots. Have a calendar on the wall of all my bills due dates. I've shredded things I have kept for way too long. I'm a big girl now. I should have taken a picture of it.

Mr. Freeze is getting surprisingly full thanks to all the Eggo's I got at SuperFresh and the turkey I earned a few weeks ago that was taking residence at my parent's neighbor's house until I had a place to put it.

I know alot of people list on their menu their breakfasts and lunches. I am out of the house for work from 7am to 6pm at night. So every weekday for breakfast, I have a shake of bananas and orange juice and my lunches usually consist of brown rice, yogurt and dried cereal and maybe veggies. My husband works mostly nights, so he is home in the day and I don't know what he eats but it the stuff I have in the house.

But dinners we make whether we are home together or not. If he leaves before I get home, he makes the dinner and leaves me a nice plate.

Weekends I try to make us both a breakfast, usually french toast, Amish Baked Oatmeal, egg casserole or pancakes. Weekend lunches and dinners are always from what we have on hand too. Sometimes leftovers from the week.

Been a while since I actually got a CVS deal right. Might restore my faith in going back to it every week. What is funny is that I bought these refills cause they were a good deal, thinking though I don't even have a Glade oil warmer at home. When I got home I found out I had several. Yahoo!

4 Glade Scented oil plugins refills $5.49 each

Total $21.96

Coupons2 BOGO Glade plugins refills1 $3.00 off any purchase of $15.00 or more

My trip to SuperFresh on Saturday morning was mostly to get the ground beef that was on a great sale for $1.68 a pound. I got there a little before 9am and they had none. Yes, NONE! They didn't even have a sign out for it. So I just assumed I had gotten there too early for the people in the meat department. I went and did the rest of my shopping. But managed to botch some of that up too.

The Special K and the Eggo's waffles were supposed to be .99 each. The Eggo's worked but the Special K rang up at $2.50. The Stroehmann's bread was 3 for $4.00 but unfortunately the kind I picked up and had coupons for wasn't part of the deal either. And again did I mention that I didn't get the ground meat?

So in my frustration, and my husband's frequent complaining that we need ground meat instead of using ground chicken or ground turkey, I hauled my behind back to SF later in the evening to see if they stocked up on the meal. And thank Jebus they did. I got close to 9 lbs of ground meat, and froze it into 1lb little packages and stuck them in Mr. Freeze.

a little under 9 lbs of ground meat $14.62

Lastly, of course, to ShopRite. They were having their Can Can sale, but I really am well stocked up on canned goods, so I just got some things to round out our week. The Slim A Bear Klondike ice cream sandwiches are for me. I am trying to teach myself portion control with my ice cream consumption. My name is Cheryl and I have an addiction to ice cream.

Total spent $52.27 Just a pinch bit over budget. Would have done better overall if I paid attention the first time at SuperFresh. But Mr. Freeze is happy and so is my husband that I won't be making meatloaf with ground chicken in it any time soon.

If anyone watched Oprah yesterday she had Suzie Orman on, with her 2009 action plan.

On top of the normal ways in which you need to pay off your credit card debt, she made some suggestions at the end of her show to the audience members who had a combined total of 2.9 million dollars of credit card debt.

1.) Don't spend money for a whole day (they nodded)

2.) Don't use your credit cards for a week (they nodded)

3.) Don't eat at restaurants for a whole month............OMG!

You would have thought with that last one that she asked them to sacrifice their first born child. They were outraged and upset and some just plain refused to do so. And I was horrified that this small sacrifice to give yourself financial freedom did upset them so much.

Now that I have thought about it today, I think some people misinterpreted who she was directing this to and people in the restaurant business weren't happy too. But she wasn't telling people who are financially sound, have no debt and good savings to not go out to restaurants. She was telling this to the people that had mounds of credit card debt and are one paycheck away from a financial disaster.

But I still think there were several there who did understand who the message is for and still refuse to take the steps necessary to get yourself out of trouble. The show did make me feel good that I was 4 months head of these people, and were already doing everything she suggested. I only hope the light goes off in their head to finally make the changes they need to.

Well we all heard that credit card companies are now lowering the limits on customers card. I got a letter the other day letting me know that credit card #4, the current one I am paying off, lowered my limit by $100. Now I know that having you limit lowered can affect your FICO score. But to be honest with you, I laughed at the letter. Its a bad card, with a horrible interest rate, and I just want to pay it off and be done with.

But my mother in law got a letter from the same bank as I have my last and biggest credit card with. They told her they were raising the rate on my father in laws card to 28%. My father in law is no longer with us, and his balance on the card is very small. She went to the bank and they agreed to make it 1%, which is fantastic. But it got me worrying that that bank may eventually do the same with me. And considering it is my largest one and the last one to go that would hurt. So far no letter, keeping my fingers crossed.

Once I knock off the next two I hope to transfer that last big one to one of my lower cards so I can start knocking that down.

A little bit ago there was a link where you can request a free Kozy Shack Ready Grains. So of course I signed up. The site describes it as "the first all natural ready to eat multigrain cereal". My first curiosity was if it was fattening, as I for the most part watch what I eat. In my opinion wasn't bad on the calories or fat for my diet, and my husband doesn't really like cereal/oatmeal so I knew this was going to be my treat to try.

I found it at SuperFresh, it came in a double bowl pack. I bought the strawberry flavor, So I paid zero dollars and brought it home. It retails anywhere from $3.00 to $4.99. I decided to take one of bowls with me to work. I like to have rice or something filling for lunch, and thought this would be great and required me to do no prep work. Just throw it in my lunchbag and go.

At lunchtime today I got it out and read that you can eat it cold or warm. Since I love my warm oatmeal I took it down to the microwave in the lunchroom and just put it on for about a minute. I stirred it around, let me suggest you should really stir it around to get it to more of an oatmeal consistency and to get the fruit mixed in.

It wasn't too bad. Kind of like a creamier, gooey, oatmeal with a pinch of sweetness in it. At first I thought it tasted like uncooked pancake batter with strawberries in it. But once I got over the texture I think the taste actually got better. More oatmeal like but still a bit creamier and gooey. I do have another bowl left and will take it with me to work. But I might bring something to eat with it as it wasn't filling enough to last me the afternoon. And I might add some almonds or something to it to give it a bit of a crunch.

Its not a bad product at all, but not sure if it was good enough for me to give up my brown rice or plain oatmeal with fruit, and not sure it will fit into my budget at that price. Maybe if they come up with some good coupons and it goes on sale.

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted a CVS deal, since I believe Black Friday. I did take two more trips to CVS since that day, but the deals were so uninspiring that I didn't even want to post them. I think every once in a while you need to take a break from the CVS'ing and regroup before resuming your trips. Also my stockpile of non-food items is doing pretty well, so I am trying to only get things I really need. I'm not going to buy diet-gum and nose spray if I know I am never going to use it.

So when I went today I had a whole deal in mind, but they were out of one of the things I wanted so I had to improvise and that meant I lost a few ECB's but I did get some things we needed. And with the new 3/15 coupon out there, I had to give it a go. And my stores coupon scanner is finally up and working, so that was good news, and I got some good new coupons.

Coupons$1.00 off Garnier$1.00 off Cottonelle$3.00 off any purchase of $15.00 or more

ECB's used $10.00Total $1.14ECB's earned $8.00

So I lost 2 ECB's, due to the fact that I had to change my deal on the spot. But we were so out of wipes it wasn't funny. So getting to stock up on stuff we are out of, it was worth it. However I do need to earn some more ECB's soon. I'm getting low.

Well, I might have to retitle my post this week. Grocery Shopping slightly off your budget cause of stinkin SuperFresh.

SuperFresh is having triples this week. Which is a curse and blessing at the same time. Its a pain to have to pull ever q you have under a dollar, and you make like a two page list of what you have to find half of them aren't good deals. But you still do get alot of stuff for cheap. So I will stop complaining now. Plus how many times have I said, that my SuperFresh has the nicest cashiers in the world. I had a 10 minute conversation with my cashier tonight about saving money, coupons, credit card debt. We bonded, it was lovely. And I got to buy Mr. Freeze a few new friends.

I went at night on Friday so the picture isn't as bright as it usually is.

So my last trip this morning was ShopRite, I had contemplated knocking off quite a bit on my list to keep it in budget. But SR was having so many good deals, so I took it as a chance to really stock up and have a lighter week next week. I know I got the Green Giant steamers at SuperFresh, but SR had a larger variety of just the plain veggies without sauce on them. And I like those better. So I got a few there too.

So I would have stayed in my budget had I not gone to SuperFresh that second time. But I was only $8.00 over my budget and I got a ton of stuff. Lets just say that Mr. Freeze is quite happy with his new collection of veggies that should last us quite a while. I am even going to try and subtract that $8.00 from my next week's budget and see if I can do it for only $42.00.

I would like you to meet Mr. Freeze. Yes, I named him. I also name all of my dog's toys, my computer and my house. I'm a nerd, I think I told you this already.

But Mr. Freeze is such an awesome addition. I actually had no clue that he would be as big as he was. I had only seen a 5 cubic foot freezer and then a monstrous sized one. So when I ordered a 7.2 one online, I figured it would only be a little bigger than the 5, but she was bigger than I thought, but enough for the two of us. I am bad at math and measurements. I had him shipped to my local Lowe's and picked him up yesterday. It is actually in a different spot than I had originally planned due to the short cord that comes with it.

So far I just love it and had already put a few things in it. I have a turkey waiting at my mom's neighbor's house to take up some room and some veggies I will be getting at ShopRite on Sunday. I bought some clear bins to put things in the freezer in categories for when it gets fuller, so things don't get lost on the bottom.

Welcome Mr. Freeze.

The blue box is one of my Rubbermaid bins full of cut up veggies and in the one slideable basket are chicken legs I got for cheap in air sealed bags.